Written by: Kevin Berge
Oliver Queen lost his sleeves for this season. Maybe next season he'll get to the classic goatee. (Image Courtesy of: netflixupdate.com)
Quick Take: Arrow Season 4 is s step up from its problematic season 3 though still falls into the same pitfalls. With inconsistent and often melodramatic writing that lacks the gravity to deal with the issues it presents, this season falls apart despite a strong central villain and engaging performances.
Previous Season Reviews: Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3
***This is a season review written just after the season finale of season four. It is spoiler heavy expecting the reader to have seen every episode of the show through the finale. If you are watching the show and have not seen every episode so far, turn back to avoid being spoiled on the season.***
Arrow Season 3 was a disaster, a massive step back for a TV show that has become so popular it spawned its own TV universe. Wasting its highest profile villain to date in Ra's Al Ghul as well as losing track of its own structure along the way made many worry that the series could never recover.
While Season 4 was a bit better, it was far below the quality of its best material, showing that the series had not in fact learned from its mistakes. The series started off on the right foot with Oliver returned to officially take on the Green Arrow moniker and become a symbol of hope rather than just an avenger.
However, the series stumbled as it tried and failed to take on the lighter tone The Flash had taken on. By the time the characters seemed ready to be happy and fun again, events came about to make things even darker and more vicious than before which forced more drama out of the series, its trademark weakness.
The number one culprit in this season's failings was "Olicity". The Arrowverse has consistently struggled with writing romance through the years, but Oliver's on again, off again relationship with Felicity is the number one culprit. With melodramatic and often comically logic-impaired writing and acting that can't sell the dialogue, there is no redemption here.
Luckily, many other elements of the season do show more promise. The highlight of this season was its villain, Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), who is revels in his own evil in a way that works so much better than other villains whose motivations have been clouded in moral shades of gray. He just wanted to rule the world with indomitable power, and he made that goal so much fun to watch.
Ultimately, the Genesis plan was high stakes with tens of thousands supposedly dying near the end of the season, but this was still just another Arrow season with the villain destroying the city. This show needs more than grand plans to destroy and rebuild. Even the series' script at multiple points pointed out hoe ridiculously similar the last episodes of each season have become.
This season was at its best when it was just comic book fun, letting Oliver be the hero and Darhk be the villain with an assortment of friends at their side. That was too few and far between while the series overemphasized darkness and melodramatic romance subplots.
***This is a season review written just after the season finale of season four. It is spoiler heavy expecting the reader to have seen every episode of the show through the finale. If you are watching the show and have not seen every episode so far, turn back to avoid being spoiled on the season.***
Arrow Season 3 was a disaster, a massive step back for a TV show that has become so popular it spawned its own TV universe. Wasting its highest profile villain to date in Ra's Al Ghul as well as losing track of its own structure along the way made many worry that the series could never recover.
While Season 4 was a bit better, it was far below the quality of its best material, showing that the series had not in fact learned from its mistakes. The series started off on the right foot with Oliver returned to officially take on the Green Arrow moniker and become a symbol of hope rather than just an avenger.
However, the series stumbled as it tried and failed to take on the lighter tone The Flash had taken on. By the time the characters seemed ready to be happy and fun again, events came about to make things even darker and more vicious than before which forced more drama out of the series, its trademark weakness.
The number one culprit in this season's failings was "Olicity". The Arrowverse has consistently struggled with writing romance through the years, but Oliver's on again, off again relationship with Felicity is the number one culprit. With melodramatic and often comically logic-impaired writing and acting that can't sell the dialogue, there is no redemption here.
Luckily, many other elements of the season do show more promise. The highlight of this season was its villain, Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), who is revels in his own evil in a way that works so much better than other villains whose motivations have been clouded in moral shades of gray. He just wanted to rule the world with indomitable power, and he made that goal so much fun to watch.
Ultimately, the Genesis plan was high stakes with tens of thousands supposedly dying near the end of the season, but this was still just another Arrow season with the villain destroying the city. This show needs more than grand plans to destroy and rebuild. Even the series' script at multiple points pointed out hoe ridiculously similar the last episodes of each season have become.
This season was at its best when it was just comic book fun, letting Oliver be the hero and Darhk be the villain with an assortment of friends at their side. That was too few and far between while the series overemphasized darkness and melodramatic romance subplots.
For all its faults, at least this Justice League has real, lasting build up unlike a certain other DC Justice League. (Image Courtesy of: denofgeek.com)
Stephen Amell is clearly an actor on the rise. He continues to impress with his versatility and action chops though he does seem to be fading a bit into the background as more and more actors become a part of this world. He is good in the dramatic sequences, but he can't carry bad writing.
The man who did carry this season was David Ramsey. Dealing with the return and betrayal of his brother as well as his newly developing family gave Diggle the most natural drama to work with, and he shined. His portrayal of Diggle at times was truly heartbreaking to watch.
Paul Blackthorne as well is still an emotional core for the series, but he became less relevant to the story as season progressed and thus got less to do. The season's hardest moment to watch was Detective Lance finding out Laurel had died as he somehow tapped into the feeling of a father losing a daughter for the third time (despite only having two).
Emily Bett Rickards will be severely criticized for Felicity being such a crutch on the series this season, but that's largely not her fault as she did solid work with what she was given. Willa Holland got more screen time than she has in the past as Thea found her heroic footing, but she still doesn't quite deliver anything with the necessary conviction though she had one of the best single scene performances in "Unchained" that the series has seen.
Katie Cassidy was the actress who benefited most from the lighter tone in the first few episodes as she seemed to be more natural with snappier dialogue, but she seemed to be shoved to the side this season, leading to Laurel's death. The series rarely needed her character though it was a shame to see her underutilized then killed off as she was finding her footing.
Neal McDonough (Minority Report) has so much charisma that he just pops off the screen the whole season. He was fantastic as Damien Darhk even though he wasn't playing the most complex of characters. He got to work off John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn quite a bit this season and even outshined him with Barrowman feeling a tad overused at this point, playing too many sides.
The newcomers this season included Echo Kellum (Ben and Kate) who took on the comic role as Curtis Holt and succeeded as his predecessors in Felicity and Ray Palmer had in previous seasons and Jimmy Akingbola (Holby City) who was a fairly bland flashback villain in Baron Reiter. We also got some cool one off hero appearances with both Matt Ryan (Constantine) and Megalyn Ann Echikunwoke (CSI: Miami) as Vixen demanding more screen time in the future.
The man who did carry this season was David Ramsey. Dealing with the return and betrayal of his brother as well as his newly developing family gave Diggle the most natural drama to work with, and he shined. His portrayal of Diggle at times was truly heartbreaking to watch.
Paul Blackthorne as well is still an emotional core for the series, but he became less relevant to the story as season progressed and thus got less to do. The season's hardest moment to watch was Detective Lance finding out Laurel had died as he somehow tapped into the feeling of a father losing a daughter for the third time (despite only having two).
Emily Bett Rickards will be severely criticized for Felicity being such a crutch on the series this season, but that's largely not her fault as she did solid work with what she was given. Willa Holland got more screen time than she has in the past as Thea found her heroic footing, but she still doesn't quite deliver anything with the necessary conviction though she had one of the best single scene performances in "Unchained" that the series has seen.
Katie Cassidy was the actress who benefited most from the lighter tone in the first few episodes as she seemed to be more natural with snappier dialogue, but she seemed to be shoved to the side this season, leading to Laurel's death. The series rarely needed her character though it was a shame to see her underutilized then killed off as she was finding her footing.
Neal McDonough (Minority Report) has so much charisma that he just pops off the screen the whole season. He was fantastic as Damien Darhk even though he wasn't playing the most complex of characters. He got to work off John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn quite a bit this season and even outshined him with Barrowman feeling a tad overused at this point, playing too many sides.
The newcomers this season included Echo Kellum (Ben and Kate) who took on the comic role as Curtis Holt and succeeded as his predecessors in Felicity and Ray Palmer had in previous seasons and Jimmy Akingbola (Holby City) who was a fairly bland flashback villain in Baron Reiter. We also got some cool one off hero appearances with both Matt Ryan (Constantine) and Megalyn Ann Echikunwoke (CSI: Miami) as Vixen demanding more screen time in the future.
That awkward moment when your show gets cancelled, but it only takes you half an episode to steal the show from the star of the series now through four seasons. (Image Courtesy of: forbes.com)
It's hard to speak about Arrow's writing staff in a positive light after these two seasons. Even at their best this season, they still struggled to put together effective dialogue through a whole episode. It was hard to see all the faults of earlier seasons keep propping up rather than evolving.
The teams are not identical between Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, but the series should be learning from one another in order to improve. Not many TV shows get to spawn this many products in a single season, and it is just baffling that the original show Arrow is struggling so much more than its spinoffs.
This team isn't just floundered but seems handicapped by its mistakes. Arrow's first two seasons were great in part due to the exhilarating flashback sequences on the island. Now they seem to hold onto the flashbacks like a crutch even though they dragged at such a level this season that they didn't even deserve to be a part of the weekly episodes.
The direction though for this series is still the strongest of the three. The directors consistently seem to bring out the most from the actors as well as truly shining in the action scenes. Arrow is still succeeding because its action is top notch. There were some truly top notch episodes this season for pure martial arts action.
The pickings for the best episodes this season were a bit lighter than usual, but there were still some strong choices. "Brotherhood" facilitated Ramsey's best performance of the season as he worked through the revelations surrounding his brother. "Legends of Yesterday" was another fantastic crossover episode with the merging of casts always elevating Arrow's ensemble. "Eleven-Fifty-Nine" was Darhk's greatest moment of villainy and also a powerful and emotional sendoff for Laurel.
Overall, this was the season that may have broken me when it comes to watching Arrow. I thought Arrow could recover from its failings in the previous season, but it just kept chugging along as if the third season had not been a disaster but a sign of the series' consistent direction.
While this season had some good moments including some powerfully emotional ones, the show went down a path that it couldn't turn back from. Too often there was too much going on that meant so little with writing that failed the actors and the show. While the Arrowverse still has other compelling shows, I may have to step back from Arrow itself until it can convince me its worth investing in again.
The teams are not identical between Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, but the series should be learning from one another in order to improve. Not many TV shows get to spawn this many products in a single season, and it is just baffling that the original show Arrow is struggling so much more than its spinoffs.
This team isn't just floundered but seems handicapped by its mistakes. Arrow's first two seasons were great in part due to the exhilarating flashback sequences on the island. Now they seem to hold onto the flashbacks like a crutch even though they dragged at such a level this season that they didn't even deserve to be a part of the weekly episodes.
The direction though for this series is still the strongest of the three. The directors consistently seem to bring out the most from the actors as well as truly shining in the action scenes. Arrow is still succeeding because its action is top notch. There were some truly top notch episodes this season for pure martial arts action.
The pickings for the best episodes this season were a bit lighter than usual, but there were still some strong choices. "Brotherhood" facilitated Ramsey's best performance of the season as he worked through the revelations surrounding his brother. "Legends of Yesterday" was another fantastic crossover episode with the merging of casts always elevating Arrow's ensemble. "Eleven-Fifty-Nine" was Darhk's greatest moment of villainy and also a powerful and emotional sendoff for Laurel.
Overall, this was the season that may have broken me when it comes to watching Arrow. I thought Arrow could recover from its failings in the previous season, but it just kept chugging along as if the third season had not been a disaster but a sign of the series' consistent direction.
While this season had some good moments including some powerfully emotional ones, the show went down a path that it couldn't turn back from. Too often there was too much going on that meant so little with writing that failed the actors and the show. While the Arrowverse still has other compelling shows, I may have to step back from Arrow itself until it can convince me its worth investing in again.